{"id":515,"date":"2010-12-16T00:01:48","date_gmt":"2010-12-16T05:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/returntorome\/?p=515"},"modified":"2015-03-13T13:30:06","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T17:30:06","slug":"my-latest-article-guidance-for-doting-and-peeping-thomists-a-review-essay-of-aquinas-a-beginners-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/2010\/12\/my-latest-article-guidance-for-doting-and-peeping-thomists-a-review-essay-of-aquinas-a-beginners-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"My latest article: “Guidance for Doting and Peeping Thomists: A Review Essay of Aquinas: A Beginner\u2019s Guide.”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This just appeared in the Winter 2010 issue of Philosophia Christi <\/em>(429-439). \u00a0It is a review essay<\/a> of Edward Feser\u2019s latest book, Aquinas: A Beginner\u2019s Guide<\/a><\/em>. Although you cannot presently get the article online, you can see the issue\u2019s table of contents here<\/a>. (Update<\/strong>: It is now accessible online here<\/a>. Special thanks to the PC editor for granting me permission to post it on my website. For a profile of the entire issue of PC, go here<\/a>). In the same issue is a review essay of \u00a0my book, Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice <\/a><\/em>(Cambridge University Press, 2007)<\/a>. It is written by Calvin College philosophy professor Kevin Corcoran, who I had the pleasure to meet three years ago at the 2007 meeting of the Evangelical Philosophical Society. \u00a0He was a discussant in a session on Defending Life<\/em>. \u00a0I have not yet read the review essay. But since he\u2019s a very bright philosopher, I should get a run for my money.<\/p>\n

A portion of my review essay deals with Feser\u2019s take on St. Thomas and Intelligent Design (ID). As readers of Return to Rome know, I am critical of ID, having published several articles in the past couple of years in which I make this plain. (See here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>, but especially read my four part series on the BioLogos blog in which I tell about my initial and developing misgivings about ID. Here is part 1<\/a>, part 2<\/a>, part 3<\/a>, and part 4<\/a>). In any event, here is an excerpt of the Philosophia Christi<\/em> review essay that may interest readers of Return to Rome (notes omitted):<\/p>\n

Even though some attribute an ID-approach to Aquinas, Feser argues that the attribution is mistaken and reveals a misunderstanding of what Aquinas was trying accomplish in his Fifth Way. For Aquinas, the design or purpose of <\/em>nature refers to the interrelationship of \u201call things\u201d in the universe, including scientific laws and all inanimate and animate things and their powers, which have their own natures that direct them to certain ends. And they are all kept in existence by the God Who brought the universe into being ex nihilo<\/em>. Thus, writes Feser, \u201cAquinas . . . takes the Fifth Way to entail the existence of nothing less than the God of classical theism, who sustains the order of the world here and now and at any moment at which it exists\u201d (111) That is, \u201cAquinas\u2019s argument is intended as a metaphysical demonstration\u201d and not as a \u201cquasi-scientific empirical hypothesis\u201d that claims to offer a probable and provisionary answer, which is precisely what the ID advocates claim of their view (111). As Dembski writes, ID \u201cdepends on advances in probability theory, computer science, molecular biology, the philosophy of science and the concept of information\u2014to name but a few.\u201d Thus, without the assistance of these advances, belief in design in nature is imperiled. For this reason, according to Stephen Meyer, ID must exclusively\u00a0bear the burden to ward off philosophical materialism. Or, as Dembski puts it: \u201cNaturalism is the disease. Intelligent design is the cure.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Feser suggests, this posture does to Christian metaphysics what some prominent analytic philosophers are suggesting every branch of philosophy should have done to it: naturalize it. As Brian Leiter puts it, the first half of the twentieth century\u2019s \u201clinguistic turn . . . . has either been supplanted or supplemented by the naturalistic turn, in which traditional philosophical problems are thought be insoluble by the a priori<\/em>, armchair methods of the philosopher, and to require, instead, embedding in (or replacement by) suitable empirical theories.\u201d And this naturalistic turn requires a particular approach to metaphysics that is informed by an empiricist epistemology found\u00a0in modern science. As Leiter writes: \u201cPhilosophical understanding, in short, must be the same as scientific understanding: it must employ the same methods of understanding that the sciences deploy with good effect elsewhere.\u201d Although ID advocates reject methodological naturalism (MN) in science when it comes to excluding ID conclusions a priori<\/em>, they in fact emulate the methodological posture of their opponents when it comes to embracing the \u201cnaturalistic turn.\u201d That is, when it comes to doing philosophy, Dembski and Leiter are two peas in a pod. The only difference is that Dembski thinks he has evidence for design whereas Leiter disagrees. But they are both operating under the aegis of the \u201cnaturalistic turn.\u201d This is why ID advocates claim they are no less \u201cscientific\u201d than their critics, except that each comes to different conclusions. As Dembski puts it: ID \u201ctakes a long-standing philosophical intuition and cashes it out as a scientific research program.\u201d<\/p>\n

ID advocates are, of course, foes of naturalism, and Feser is not suggesting otherwise. What he is suggesting, however, is that they want to use the naturalist\u2019s own methodological assumptions against naturalism, but in doing so concede so much to naturalism that they end up with a radically distorted theology and a dubious metaphysics.<\/p>\n

This is why Feser argues that ID\u2019s scientific research program, like Paley\u2019s natural theology or philosophy\u2019s naturalistic turn, takes for granted \u201ca mechanistic view of nature\u201d that \u201cdenies that purpose or teleology is immanent <\/em>or inherent <\/em>in nature\u201d (115) Aquinas, according to Feser, rejects this view because it seemed to him that \u201cevery agent <\/em>has a final cause; that is to say, that everything that serves as an efficient cause `points to\u2019 or is `directed at\u2019 some specific effect or range of effects as its natural end\u201d (114) This is why, for the Thomist, chance and law\u2014the two explanations that Dembski must eliminate in order to detect design in natural objects \u2014are not defeaters to teleology in nature. For chance and law\u2014the natural processes themselves\u2014reveal the final causality immanent and inherent in nature\u2026.<\/p>\n

Thus, for the Thomist, Darwinian mechanisms and pathways, as well as scientific laws and other natural processes, no more count against the existence and necessity of God (or even final or formal causality) than does the account of my conception by the natural processes of human reproduction count against the claim that God is Creator of the universe. This is because the Fifth Way, like each of the other Five Ways, is not an argument from some inexplicable facts in the universe to the existence of God, as if the Divine were a hypothesis provisionally embraced until further evidence turns up. \u00a0Rather, according to Aquinas, the universe is a radically contingent being requiring a Necessary Being, God, for its genesis as well as its continued existence including the development and order (\u03c4\u03ad\u03bb\u03bf\u03db) within it. But if one embraces the naturalistic turn, which assumes a methodological stance that excludes immanent final causality as empirically detectable because it eludes\u00a0the strictures of modern science, then ID and naturalism seem like the only two philosophically attractive options. The Thomist, as Feser ably argues (36\u201351, 110\u201320), rejects this as a false choice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This just appeared in the Winter 2010 issue of Philosophia Christi (429-439). \u00a0It is a review essay of Edward Feser\u2019s latest book, Aquinas: A Beginner\u2019s Guide. Although you cannot presently get the article online, you can see the issue\u2019s table of contents here. (Update: It is now accessible online here. Special thanks to the PC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,105,140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-philosophy","category-st-thomas-aquinas"],"yoast_head":"\nMy latest article: "Guidance for Doting and Peeping Thomists: A Review Essay of Aquinas: A Beginner\u2019s Guide."<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This just appeared in the Winter 2010 issue of Philosophia Christi (429-439). \u00a0It is a review essay of Edward Feser's latest book, Aquinas: A Beginner's\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/2010\/12\/my-latest-article-guidance-for-doting-and-peeping-thomists-a-review-essay-of-aquinas-a-beginners-guide\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My latest article: "Guidance for Doting and Peeping Thomists: A Review Essay of Aquinas: A Beginner\u2019s Guide."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This just appeared in the Winter 2010 issue of Philosophia Christi (429-439). \u00a0It is a review essay of Edward Feser's latest book, Aquinas: A Beginner's\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/2010\/12\/my-latest-article-guidance-for-doting-and-peeping-thomists-a-review-essay-of-aquinas-a-beginners-guide\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Return to Rome\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-16T05:01:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-13T17:30:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Francis J. Beckwith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Francis J. Beckwith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/2010\/12\/my-latest-article-guidance-for-doting-and-peeping-thomists-a-review-essay-of-aquinas-a-beginners-guide\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/2010\/12\/my-latest-article-guidance-for-doting-and-peeping-thomists-a-review-essay-of-aquinas-a-beginners-guide\/\",\"name\":\"My latest article: \\\"Guidance for Doting and Peeping Thomists: A Review Essay of Aquinas: A Beginner\u2019s Guide.\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-12-16T05:01:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-13T17:30:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/#\/schema\/person\/ea4cf1e3d64003e8376d3a7ac9e43bce\"},\"description\":\"This just appeared in the Winter 2010 issue of Philosophia Christi (429-439). \u00a0It is a review essay of Edward Feser's latest book, Aquinas: A Beginner's\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/2010\/12\/my-latest-article-guidance-for-doting-and-peeping-thomists-a-review-essay-of-aquinas-a-beginners-guide\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/2010\/12\/my-latest-article-guidance-for-doting-and-peeping-thomists-a-review-essay-of-aquinas-a-beginners-guide\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/2010\/12\/my-latest-article-guidance-for-doting-and-peeping-thomists-a-review-essay-of-aquinas-a-beginners-guide\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"My latest article: “Guidance for Doting and Peeping Thomists: A Review Essay of Aquinas: A Beginner\u2019s Guide.”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/\",\"name\":\"Return to Rome\",\"description\":\"Francis J. Beckwith's Reflections on Faith, Ethics and Culture\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/#\/schema\/person\/ea4cf1e3d64003e8376d3a7ac9e43bce\",\"name\":\"Francis J. Beckwith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c2b4e2611fc34908134be56ffecb130?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c2b4e2611fc34908134be56ffecb130?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Francis J. Beckwith\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/author\/francisbeckwith\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"My latest article: \"Guidance for Doting and Peeping Thomists: A Review Essay of Aquinas: A Beginner\u2019s Guide.\"","description":"This just appeared in the Winter 2010 issue of Philosophia Christi (429-439). \u00a0It is a review essay of Edward Feser's latest book, Aquinas: A Beginner's","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/2010\/12\/my-latest-article-guidance-for-doting-and-peeping-thomists-a-review-essay-of-aquinas-a-beginners-guide\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"My latest article: \"Guidance for Doting and Peeping Thomists: A Review Essay of Aquinas: A Beginner\u2019s Guide.\"","og_description":"This just appeared in the Winter 2010 issue of Philosophia Christi (429-439). \u00a0It is a review essay of Edward Feser's latest book, Aquinas: A Beginner's","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/2010\/12\/my-latest-article-guidance-for-doting-and-peeping-thomists-a-review-essay-of-aquinas-a-beginners-guide\/","og_site_name":"Return to Rome","article_published_time":"2010-12-16T05:01:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-13T17:30:06+00:00","author":"Francis J. Beckwith","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Francis J. Beckwith","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/2010\/12\/my-latest-article-guidance-for-doting-and-peeping-thomists-a-review-essay-of-aquinas-a-beginners-guide\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/2010\/12\/my-latest-article-guidance-for-doting-and-peeping-thomists-a-review-essay-of-aquinas-a-beginners-guide\/","name":"My latest article: \"Guidance for Doting and Peeping Thomists: A Review Essay of Aquinas: A Beginner\u2019s Guide.\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-12-16T05:01:48+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-13T17:30:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/#\/schema\/person\/ea4cf1e3d64003e8376d3a7ac9e43bce"},"description":"This just appeared in the Winter 2010 issue of Philosophia Christi (429-439). \u00a0It is a review essay of Edward Feser's latest book, Aquinas: A Beginner's","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/2010\/12\/my-latest-article-guidance-for-doting-and-peeping-thomists-a-review-essay-of-aquinas-a-beginners-guide\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/2010\/12\/my-latest-article-guidance-for-doting-and-peeping-thomists-a-review-essay-of-aquinas-a-beginners-guide\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/2010\/12\/my-latest-article-guidance-for-doting-and-peeping-thomists-a-review-essay-of-aquinas-a-beginners-guide\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"My latest article: “Guidance for Doting and Peeping Thomists: A Review Essay of Aquinas: A Beginner\u2019s Guide.”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/","name":"Return to Rome","description":"Francis J. Beckwith's Reflections on Faith, Ethics and Culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/#\/schema\/person\/ea4cf1e3d64003e8376d3a7ac9e43bce","name":"Francis J. Beckwith","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c2b4e2611fc34908134be56ffecb130?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c2b4e2611fc34908134be56ffecb130?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Francis J. Beckwith"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/author\/francisbeckwith\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/returntorome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}